This invention relates to bottle carriers of the type fashioned from a unitary sheet of paperboard or other resilient, stiff, and bendable sheet material. Typical carriers of this type are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,252,235 issued to Snelling and 2,299,625 issued to Holmes. Such carriers are characterized by a vertical handle secured to a generally horizontal support platform or panels which have a plurality of openings therein for receiving glass bottles. The glass bottles are often of the type whose necks are each provided with an annularly continuous and integral bead, with a metal or other top closure cap located above the bead and serving to close the contents of the bottle. The openings of the support platform may be circular whose peripheries are provided with radially extending tongues defined by annularly spaced radial cuts, with each tongue having a depression or fold line at its base to facilitate upward bending. Upon insertion of a bottle into a respective opening, the radially innermost tips of the tongues engage beneath the integral bead to support the bottle therein, such an action shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,323,895 issued to Sutherland.
The Snelling construction includes a handle of such a vertical extent that it can be folded to a horizontal position and thus not interfere with stacking or packaging of the carriers. Holmes overcomes the stacking problem due to the vertical handle by so relating the configuration of the bottle carrier handle and the bottles such that the handle may be bent from a vertical position to a substantially horizontal position, the handle releasably latching on the lower lip of a bottle closure or cap. This defines a temporary latching arrangement whereby individual units, such as of six bottles, may be vertically stacked or packaged yet which will enable a consumer to unlatch the handle of the topmost carrier of a stack and move the handle to a vertical position for carrying the bottles. While carrying out the intended function of a carrier with a handle which permits stacking, the construction of the noted Holmes patent suffers the drawback that the handle requires more material than is required even though requiring less handle material than the Snelling construction.